Awesome Games Done Quick 2025 has concluded, raising just over $2.5 million for the Prevent Cancer Foundation. Every Games Done Quick event is worth tuning in to either live or later via VODs, but this AGDQ was uniquely fantastic, filled with runs that’ll go down as some of the best GDQ has to offer. Here are some of our favorites:
The great thing about the speedrunning community is that it’s often not enough to be the fastest runner of a particular game. That’s boring. For Wes, simply running New Super Mario Bros. Wii wasn’t enough to satisfy him. He had to get creative with it, deciding to master playing the game as fast as possible while playing the piano. But how can someone play a video game if both their hands are occupied, you ask? The answer is obvious: by controlling the game with your head and feet. I don’t know what inspires a human to do this kind of thing, and I don’t care. All that matters is that Wes put the depth of human ability (and multitasking) on display, and it was brain-breaking to watch.
Speaking of incredible human talent, how about playing Elden Ring — a game known for its punishing difficulty — with a saxophone. I was looking forward to this run all week, and Dr. Doot did not disappoint, but not for the reason I expected. It’s one thing to beat the likes of Malenia, Blade of Miquella with a specially programmed aerophone. But nothing could have prepared me for every input, from landing an attack to using consumables, sounding a hilarious “doot” noise. I cried laughing it was so funny.
Super Metroid is a GDQ staple, often anchoring the event’s last day in a week’s worth of programming. But lately, GDQ has gotten away from featuring a mere run of the game to instead showcase all the work the Super Metroid modding community has put into keeping this game from 1994 fresh and interesting. This four-way race of Super Metroid included a map randomizer, meaning the game’s normal layout had been shuffled around and put together in an all-new configuration.
Map randomizers for a Metroid game are uniquely dangerous because all of the abilities you need to progress are no longer laid out in a logical fashion. Samus might run into the fiery pits of Lower Norfair long before finding the heat-shielding Varia suit. And with the map randomized, it’s now way harder (and takes way longer) to find where the suit is. Now add an element of competition, and you’ve got one of the finest races in AGDQ history.
It used to be that if you wanted to avoid DMCA strikes for playing a game on Twitch with licensed music, you just turned the music off. But AGDQ has come up with a novel way to get around this old problem. For this run of Crazy Taxi, every song was played by a cover band that transformed AGDQ from a speedrunning video game event into an impromptu punk rock show — mini-mosh pit and all — and it ruled. I’m not gonna share any details. Just go watch it for yourself.
GDQ is a uniquely special event for more reasons than featuring cool, creative, or crazy-ass runs. In a world where cowardly corporations have decided it’s okay to call women and LGBTQ+ people slurs, and one where gamers have a unique reputation for being awful to each other for differences beyond our control, Games Done Quick has been very vocal in its support of marginalized people. Whether it be its diverse programming with Frame Fatales or Black in a Flash or the mere fact that every other donation featured a message of “Trans Rights,” which was enthusiastically read aloud and enthusiastically cheered by the live crowd.
Games Done Quick has been a shining example of how intentionally curated communities can foster acceptance and be a source of joy and goodness in a climate that needs it, and AGDQ 2025 was one of the best.
https://www.theverge.com/2025/1/13/24342952/best-runs-of-agdq-2025-speedrunning-charity-twitch
